This invention relates to an apparatus and method for removing the tops of plants and in particular to an apparatus for lifting and cutting the tops of plants.
While the apparatus and method of the present invention are primarily designed for removing the tops of onion plants, it will be appreciated that such apparatus and method can be used for cutting other plants, such as beets.
More often than not the stalks and leaves of onion plants are found to be bent prior to harvesting. It is necessary to top the onions i.e. remove the stalks and leaves prior to harvesting of the roots or bulbs of the onions. Moreover it has been found that the leaves of onions tend to hide the stalks and/or bulbs and as a result there are crop losses of up to forty percent. The losses result when the harvester cuts the stalks into small pieces or damages the bulbs. Accordingly it is important that the tops of the onions be removed before harvesting of the bulbs. A typical apparatus for performing such an operation is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,201 which issued to L. H. Christensen on 27 Feb. 1979. Such mechanical devices are somewhat complicated and do not necessarily pick up all of the tops during a single passage over a crop area.
The object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of existing structures, by providing a relatively simple apparatus and method for efficiently removing the tops of plants.